Michigan State University opens $88 million Grand Rapids Research Center

Michigan State University officially opened its $88 million Grand Rapids Research with a ribbon cutting.

“One, two, three…”

Lead by Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon, a giant green ribbon was cut opening the Medical School’s six-story, nearly 163,000-square-foot Grand Rapids Research Center.

“Imagine people who are thinking about things that we can’t yet imagine. Ideas that may work, they may not. But they’re all about trying to improve the quality of life.”

With a combination of Grand Rapids Medical Mile partners, including Spectrum Health, Van Andel Institute and Grand Valley State University to name a few, Simon envisions the most dynamic health sciences ecosystem in the world.

Lietenant Governor Brian Calley concurs, “You put them together and that’s where you make the difference. You put them together and the toughest diseases that our human race has ever faced we figure out and we cure and we advance.”

The building focus on cancer research, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, autism and women’s health scientific studies housing 44 research teams lead by 33 principal investigators.

“That ecosystem that was mentioned is really what’s going to drive this forward.” Birgit Klohs is CEO of regional nonprofit economic development organization, The Right Place. “Commercialization, that comes at the end of it all, but that’s really the goal to have either spinoffs of the ideas that are going to come out of this and other buildings up here, as well as attraction of startups, that are maybe in other places that need to be here.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsey DeVos also spoke of research partners exposing students to STEM programs early in life.